?The headmaster of a state-run school was arrested in Jharkhand's East Singhbhum district after the national flag was torn and used as a duster in classrooms, police said on Friday.

The headmaster of the school in Ghatsila told the police that the national flag was half-eaten by rats and that is why students tore it and started using the pieces as dusters for cleaning blackboards, they said. After some villagers got to know about it, they gathered at the school and soon a fracas began on the campus. A zilla parishad member also reached there and filed a police complaint, following which the headmaster was arrested, they added.

He was arrested on Thursday under Section 2 of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, said Ghatsila police station officer-in-charge Sambhu Kumar Gupta. When produced before the court, he was sent to jail, the officer said.

(With PTI inputs)